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Paul Smart OAM

Current Occupation:

Paul concentrates on putting something back into the Geelong business community by advising others. He is also involved with Geelong Chamber of Commerce and the Royal Geelong Yacht Club in an honorary capacity.

Detailed CV:

In the mid-1960s, Paul trained with Nightingale Chemicals in Sydney as an Industrial Chemist while studying for a Diploma in Organic/Analytical Chemistry, attending evening classes for six years. This introduced him to the processes of manufacture and learning about work teams in industry.

From the early 1970s to late 1980s, Paul was employed by Kodak to establish a processing plant in Sydney to develop and print films received from chemists overnight. He transferred to Kodak UK for two years to broaden his experience in manufacture and returned to Sydney for a two-year assignment to introduce work flow and job scheduling programs at seven locations around Australia. Paul transferred to Eastman Kodak in the USA to liaise with the Corporate Office and begin similar programs in Asia, New Zealand and Japan. He was State Manager in Queensland for three years, responsible for sales, marketing, processing and administration through two branches.

Paul transferred to Kodak South Africa for two years to extend the Australia/Asian programs into 15 processing locations. Returning to Melbourne as Victorian State Manager of the newly acquired Rabbit Photo Group, he set up and managed a team to establish 12 small processing labs around Australia. He was then appointed Team Leader to investigate the feasibility of producing swimming pool chemicals as a new Kodak product. 

In the early 1990s, as Director Operations with FH Fauldings (David Bull Laboratories), Paul was responsible for the production of sterile injectables of anti-cancer drugs, analgesics and anti-biotic products for hospital use only. The job included manufacture, following TGA Good Manufacturing Practice (GMP), validation processes, plant design and installation, warehousing of short expiry product and liason with overseas subsidiaries.

In the mid-1990s, Paul was contracted to Compac Packaging, which held the contract for specialised packaging for all Ford spare parts at Broadmeadows. He designed a new warehouse with improved traffic flow for large-scale vehicles, improved product workflow, inventory levels and storage systems. He also re-structured the company staff of 55 into Work Teams with defined PDs, group objectives, KPIs and reward programs.

From the mid-1990s to 2010, Paul purchased Snap Printing Queen Street, Melbourne, beginning his shift into running a small business with a staff of eight. Within five years, the centre became Victoria’s third largest. This business gave Paul the opportunity to learn about sales, marketing, cost control, cash flow, customer credit, asset management etc. on a small scale. The business was sold in 2000, after which he moved to Geelong to repeat the experience with Snap Printing Geelong. That business was established as a green-field site with no customer base, no brand identity and no history from which to build. The centre has just been sold as a profitable entity with up-to-date technology, a broad range of products (both traditional and new age digital) and a loyal customer base spread through the wider business community of greater Geelong.
 
With is business involvement scaled down, Paul has decided to stay in Geelong and offer his experience to the community that supported Snap for 10 years. “I believe the lessons I have learned can be passed on to those businesses starting from scratch or established businesses needing guidance on the basis of KPIs for growth and profit,” he says.
 
Paul’s key performance points of focus include customer base (current and potential), business network, capacity to handle growth, facilities, staff, supplier quality, quality control and workflow systems, cash flow position and stock control and meaningful reporting systems. References are available on request. He also has involvement and contact with the Geelong Chamber of Commerce, Committee for Geelong, Geelong Business Club, The Geelong Club City of Greater Geelong and various Departments, Royal Geelong Yacht Club. References are available on request.

Qualifications:

• Diploma in Science - Major in Organic/Analytical Chemistry
• Various Corporate courses on management, operations, marketing, sales and team building
• Two Geelong Advertiser Business Excellence Awards
• Courses in Running a Business, setting targets/goals/KPIs, ‘Your best business asset - you! and effective networking